46 million millennials are eligible to vote in 2012- that's a lot of power!

This election is important to me because reproductive rights are under attack, and this not only effects me, but it effects ALL of our mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives ability to contribute to our society economically.

Another speaker, who calls herself A. Lista, actually engaged with KUT before the Tuesday night taping. On her blog, she questioned why the “Why Bother” series is probing civic disengagement when registering to vote and learning your polling place can become a convoluted process.

We tackled the subject ourselves with the assistance of a KUT News intern, who coincidentally was in the process of changing her voter registration. Prompted by A.Lista’s concerns, we ended up writing a post about how to register and where to vote in Austin.

If you attended the “Why Bother?” taping, did it get you to think differently? We’re curious to hear your thoughts.

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Could you create a mathematical formula to increase voter turnout? The idea may sound far-fetched. But Travis County clerk Dana DeBeauvoir has an idea on what it might look like. “It has to do with how well each voter is connected to their local community,” DeBeauvoir tells KUT News. “For example: Do you own a house? That’s a point. Do you have children in school? That’s a point. All of those add up. And it turns out that people that have the most points of connection with their community are the people who vote.” DeBeauvoir notes those variables are “roughly all about how old you are. It takes a while to get connected.” And those factors may have a lot to do with why young Texans are sitting out elections.

Today is National Voter Registration Day , a push to get voters on the rolls before registration ends. (In Texas, that’s Oct. 9.) According to a statement from the Travis County’s voter registrar, the county “enjoys the highest voter registration rate (78%) among urban counties in Texas.” That’s some 607,000 county residents. As part of National Voter Registration Day, officials want to swell that number to 650,000. But will more registered voters actually lead to more votes and more engagement? “There are about 460,000 registered voters here inside the city of Austin,” local political consultant Mark Littlefield tells KUT News . “We have about 79,000 likely voters in a City Council election. If it is a municipal election where there is no hot mayor’s race, you are looking at turnout of 30,000, about eight percent.”